A study has proven again the links between meditation and creative thinking.REUTERS

Steve Jobs often referred to meditation as the main source of his creativity. In yet another experiment conducted on the specific benefits of meditation on creativity it has been shown that some techniques can promote creative thinking.

The study conducted by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and Dominique Lippelt at Leiden University was published in Mindfulness.

Forty individuals participated in the study which saw them meditate for 25 minutes before doing their tasks. The group involved both experienced mediators and people who never meditated before.

The study sought to investigate the influences of two types of meditative techniqueson convergent and divergent thinking, the two ingredients of creativity.

Convergent thinking as focussed in most educational systems requires students to find the right answer among a few alternatives. Three or more unrelated words were presented to the participants asking them to find one common link.

Divergent thinking on the other hand allows for many new ideas to be generated to a problem. Participants are required to think up as many uses as possible for a particular object, such as a pen.

The focused attention (FA) technique saw participants focus on one object and blank out all other thoughts while the open monitoring (OM) meditation style allows for experiencing all thoughts that come to the mind.

Engaging in OM meditation (as compared to FA meditation) yielded better performance in divergent thinking, irrespective of previous experience or training.

This suggests that the technique induces a temporary mind state that reduces top-down control and allows for a more associative spreading of activation in memory, says the paper.

Here is the original post:
Meditation Shown to Improve Creative Thinking Even Without Prior Practice

Certain meditation techniques can promote creative thinking, even if you have never meditated before. This is the outcome of a study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and Dominique Lippelt at Leiden University, published in Mindfulness.

Long-lasting influence

The study is a clear indication that you don't need to be an experienced meditator to profit more from meditation. The findings support the belief that meditation can have a long-lasting influence on human cognition, including how we conceive new ideas. Besides experienced meditators, also novices may profit from meditation.

Different techniques, different effects

But the results demonstrate that not all forms of meditation have the same effect on creativity. Test persons performed better in divergent thinking (= thinking up as many possible solutions for a given problem) after Open Monitoring meditation (= being receptive to every thought and sensation). The researchers did not see this effect on divergent thinking after Focused Attention meditation (=focusing on a particular thought or object.)

Setup of the study

40 individuals participated in this study, who had to meditate for 25 minutes before doing their thinking tasks. There were both experienced mediators and people who never meditated before. The study investigated the influences of different types of meditative techniques on the two main ingredients of creativity:

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Leiden University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Meditation makes you more creative, study suggests